HAVE YOU TRIED Markers for fashion illustration?
Are you thinking about using Fashion Markers for illustration and design sketching?
–For sure!
Why not? They are the cornerstone of super quick and smooth work when that’s what you need.
Traditionally recognized, portable, and excellent for live sketching events, markers dry fast (sometimes too fast), are rich with pigment, are blendable and layerable, and come in so many tips, formulations and shapes.
…and they don’t have to cost a fortune either!
WHY TRY MARKERS for fashion illustration?
For many many years I resisted markers for fashion illustration and design sketching. I thought they felt thin and flat. They dried up too fast and didn’t match the colors in my fabric swatches.
When I got hired to sketch in-store at live fashion illustration events. I bought a handful of marker types to explore.
Little by little I discovered how and why they could be valuable.
They’re still not my number one choice for finished illustrations or croquis development, but I LOVE THEM for live sketching classes and events.
As a fashion designer and professor using gouache and pencil techniques, in love with the timeless, rich, art quality of those materials, (Gouache is what I teach in my signature Soulful Fashion Foundation Immersion Program.) I had a culture shock.
NOT LIKE GOUACHE!
In contrast, design/art markers were sheer, weightless. Smelly. Marker paper was ultra-bright-white, onion-skin thin, and smooth. I missed the density and warmth of porous papers. The tips to markers were limited (unlike a wide range of watercolor brushes). And, I couldn’t mix my own colors!
Personally, I preferred the velvety look and feel, thickness and textural capabilities of gouache for fashion illustrations. I even liked the slowness of working with watercolors.
UNTIL… I needed them for a live sketching event at Lord and Taylor in New York.
BENEFITS OF ART DESIGN MARKERS
I needed PORTABLE.
I needed QUICK DRYING.
I needed PRE-MIXED COLORS AT AN ARM’S LENGTH.
I needed tools that didn’t need sharpening, rinsing, loading, or even cleanup.
And I did not want any risk to the clothing that was hanging all around me getting stained.
That’s when And so, fashion Art and Design Markers saved me!
PAPERS FOR MARKER FASHION SKETCHING
Unfortunately, when I showed up for my first live fashion sketching event, I was instructed to use branded paper. This paper was NOT MARKER PAPER!
Marker paper is really essential to working with markers.
Why marker paper?
Marker paper is much less porous than other papers, much less absorbant. And so, it absorbs MUCH LESS of your ink, so your markers last infinitely longer! This also means that your markers slide more freely across the page, It also means that they won’t bleed through and leave marks on the next page!
So I armed myself with a range of water-based and alcohol based art and design markers, colored pencils, brush tip/ ball tip/ and felt tip pens for the live sketching event.
Times were very tight with a tiny baby at home. So I didn’t want to invest in a full range of expensive art markers. I couldn’t! I had to find a way to mix and match marker types and see what colors and qualities were most essential to do the jobs.
WHAT COLORS YOU NEED
I collected a range of
- skin tones,
- greys, (you’ll see a wide range of cool and warm grey options abound)
- black,
- and basic colors (perhaps a rainbow).
Because these colors create your lines (oh yes, add pencil or black fine line pens to your tool box too for lines) , your shadows, and skintones give life to your PEOPLE!
Beyond that, navy blue, mauves and browns can help for toning down anything that comes through too bright, and for creating makeup and hair effects.
Layering greys over colors creates shadow tones, giving textural rhythms, definition and dimension to the looks you create.
In the live events, I was sketching customers, so I was drawing from observation and not from imagination.
Since then, I’ve integrated marker techniques into their own module in FABRIC FORM AND FLOW online course! (other modules include gouache, and ipad/tablet / mobile devices fashion illustration).
Below, sheer, iridescent/ holographic/ pearly organza dress renderedin markers.
Though I’d been a staunch gouache snob, when I started doing live fashion sketching events at Lord and Taylor, there was no time for mixing and drying colors. I had to get comfy with markers FAST, and they served me well.
After a few weeks, learning and mastering MARKERS on the job led me to create FABRIC FORM AND FLOW to unlock the mysteries of this medium for you and help you find your voice in the process.
To this day, I use a mix of watercolor markers (Tombow and other dual tip brush markers), Chartpak/Prismacolor/Copic and other brands of alcohol markers.
*****FUN FACT: my grandfather Eugene Casey was an industrial designer, package designer and illustrator/cartoonist. I remember whenever we visited his house, I’d ask for the bag of big, metal, chunky, smelly markers to play with. There was something magical about them, to me. So this is a full-circle moment****
Below, a mix of ink pens, watercolor/water soluble markers and alchol and copic markers, sharpies, white china marker and colored pencils.
What do I need?
YOU NEED not all of these, but any of the following:
1.CHUNKY, CHEMICAL, COLORFUL ART/DESIGN MARKERS:
Prismacolor Design Markers, Chartpak Art Markers. Copics, Winsor and Newtown, Some have CHISEL TIPS, some have BRUSH TIPS, some have fine tips. SOME HAVE BOTH.
I recommend all sorts of skin colors, a range of greys plus black, and a basic rainbow of colors (or choose colors to match your fabric tastes)
2. FELT TIPPED AND/or ROLLER BALL PENS IN BLACK
these suggestions are WATERPROOF
Micron, Pitt Pens, Sharpies (felt tipped)
Uniball Deluxe, Precise (ball point pens)
3. WHITE JELLY/GEL PEN and WHITE CHINA MARKER
providing opaque white for highlights and shine effects. Also try white chalk, pastel pencil, oil pastel, acrylic, etc.
4. ARTIST QUALITY COLORED PENCILS
like Prismacolor Premier for rich color. On their tips, they can be used for sensitive, emotive line, for opaque textures like embroideries or prints, laces, sequins, etc, etc, On their side, they can be used as a sheer overlay to correct a color, or add a texture or shadow to a base color.
Also there are:
5. WATERSOLUBLE MARKERS
Tombow Brush Tip markers, Crayola, generic brands ….. There are fine tips types and wide barreled, chunky tip types. Crayola and some other brands have a cone shaped tip which is wonderful.
Markers like these bleed when they get wet, which can be desirable….. or NOT. On site, not so desirable, but in the studio or drawing class, adding water to make your water soluble markers bleed can make an emotive and organic effect.
You decide what you want!
6. MARKER PAPERs
Marker Paper is extremely important, it will make your markers last infinitely longer and will reduce bleed-through on your fashion illustrations and sketches.
Most are called marker paper or layout paper/ layout bond. Almost all of these papers are bright, ultra thin and super-white, easy to trace through and hard to bleed through.
It’s what I used below to create the sketch below, and the sketch above too.
BELOW, (both drawings below) I used STRATHMORE 400 MARKER PAPER which is unique because it’s super heavy, like a Bristol or cardstock, and lends a richer, heavier texture while being developed especially for marker illustrations.
You can make sense of all this with some guidance. I’ll point you in the right direction.
As I got better and better and I made more and more discoveries that I knew I could not WAIT to share with you. Experimenting and finding my soul inside those markers continues to be a source of great joy and creativity for me.
In order to get you experienced, we’ll explore model drawing exercises and full-outfit renderings (shadow, texture, pattern, highlights) inside FABRIC FORM AND FLOW course.
Well, what do you think?
What do you think of markers?
You can share your work, ask specific questions in the course too where I offer feedback and support in the sharing areas.
So, I can’t wait to see you there!
xo
Laura
Also: you can learn more about sketching and design skills for a fashion portfolio using GOUACHE in my complete fashion semester course with lifetime access- OR a comprehensive fashion design program with access to ALL OF MY COURSES here.
Pace yourself.
Discover yourself and what you are capable of.
Amaze your self.
Make your mark!
Love
Laura
Fabric Form and Flow course includes a foundation in fabrics, and designing and illustration for special fabrics across markers, gouache, and freehand digital techniques on ipad , PC or tablet. This Digital Course includes creative design projects as well as illustration technique tutorials and studies.
